Web site design, text and navigation are crucial to your online advertising campaign, even though they aren't a direct part of your search engine marketing package. Your Web site should not drive your customers away before they have a chance to purchase something or contact you!
If you are marketing on the Internet and these unacceptable errors appear on your Web site, fix them immediately.
1. Horrid Design
Giving shoppers heart attacks by using ugly, clashing site features is unacceptable. If these rules of classic simple design aren't familiar, follow them even more closely:
• Use black on white (or dark on light) text, for perfect readability.
• Choose muted, matching colors, no background or busy patterns.
• Support your text with carefully chosen, well-cropped photos, not animated cartoons.
2. Spelling and Grammatical Errors
You are not a bad person if you cannot spell. You are a bad person if you make people read misspellings in online marketing sites. If you appear unconcerned with details, customers may just skip over you.
• Run spell-check before printing your whole site.
• Locate a really good speller (you must know one) and buy him/her lunch.
• Have him/her mark and correct every error in your site text.
• Go to your Web designer and give him/her the list of corrections.
Our own Landing Pages (somewhat like mini-Web sites) are written and reviewed by expert editors, talented in writing ad copy. Spell-check software can't catch all errors, so don't rely on them exclusively.
3. Inconsistent Navigation
I visited a small online shopping site once. The navigation buttons changed on each page, and I never found the checkout or site search. (That's the punchline -- I only visited once.)
• Put a “Buy Now” link on every page. Help customers buy right now, whenever they choose.
• Don't make them hunt for your products. They might leave without spending their money!
-- Contributed by Dan Lozano
If you are marketing on the Internet and these unacceptable errors appear on your Web site, fix them immediately.
1. Horrid Design
Giving shoppers heart attacks by using ugly, clashing site features is unacceptable. If these rules of classic simple design aren't familiar, follow them even more closely:
• Use black on white (or dark on light) text, for perfect readability.
• Choose muted, matching colors, no background or busy patterns.
• Support your text with carefully chosen, well-cropped photos, not animated cartoons.
2. Spelling and Grammatical Errors
You are not a bad person if you cannot spell. You are a bad person if you make people read misspellings in online marketing sites. If you appear unconcerned with details, customers may just skip over you.
• Run spell-check before printing your whole site.
• Locate a really good speller (you must know one) and buy him/her lunch.
• Have him/her mark and correct every error in your site text.
• Go to your Web designer and give him/her the list of corrections.
Our own Landing Pages (somewhat like mini-Web sites) are written and reviewed by expert editors, talented in writing ad copy. Spell-check software can't catch all errors, so don't rely on them exclusively.
3. Inconsistent Navigation
I visited a small online shopping site once. The navigation buttons changed on each page, and I never found the checkout or site search. (That's the punchline -- I only visited once.)
• Put a “Buy Now” link on every page. Help customers buy right now, whenever they choose.
• Don't make them hunt for your products. They might leave without spending their money!
-- Contributed by Dan Lozano
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